Research Guides: Miller Center Fellows: Explore International Contexts

Country Information

Before your summer fellowship begins, explore the country where you will be working using the resources below.

Get to know some of the history, some of the culture, and some of the language of the countries in which you'll be working.

BBC Country Profiles
An instant guide to history, politics and economic background of countries and territories, and background on key institutions.
CIA World Fact Book
Information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues of countries.

CountryWatch This link opens in a new window
Detailed economic, political information and news for 191 countries. Country reviews include historical and political information, five years of hard data for key economic sectors, economic overviews, detailed maps, environmental situations, stock markets, investment climates, and taxation information. Continuously updated.

Country Commercial Guides
U.S. Commercial Service’s Country Commercial Guides, are written by U.S. Embassy trade experts worldwide. Includes overviews of country markets, regulations, politics, and business/trade opportunities.
How to Find Even More Country Information
Need more country information? View this extensive guide from the SCU Library.

Data-Planet This link opens in a new window
Note: This database has changed names. It is now called Sage Data.
Data-Planet provides access to a repository of standardized and structured statistical data. Through a single platform, users can search and browse 25 billion data points in over 4.3 billion datasets sourced from over 70 authoritative government and private sources.

Passport This link opens in a new window
Provides 2000 data types across 11 categories: Automotives and transport, Consumer markets, Economic indicators, Foreign trade, Industrial markets, IT and telecommunications, Leisure and lifestyles, Population and households, Resources and environment, Retailing, Service markets. Country statistics contains historic and forecast demographic, economic and marketing statistics for 205 countries. Country profiles contain key political and economic indicators. Lifestyle indicators contain a huge range of data such as eating habits, home ownership trends and crime patterns for 71 countries. Data updated annually, historic data back to 1977 and forecasts to 2016.

Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations
Also see encyclopedia entries for your country in the section below. There are various data related to different sectors of the economy, as well as basic demographic statistics.

Access World News Research Collection This link opens in a new window
Includes full-text articles from 600 U.S. newspapers and over 700 international newspapers. Coverage varies, some newspapers going back as far as 1977.

World Newspapers Online
Choose a country, then see a list of links to many sources of news for that country.
WorldPress.org
Comprehensive directory of World Newspapers and Magazines, sorted by Country, region, and political affiliation.

Mango This link opens in a new window
Mango is a self-directed program for learning another language. Over 70 languages are available, including Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Greek (ancient and modern), Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Spanish (Castilian and Latin American), English, and many more. Click its title to connect to the log-in page and create your personal profile. Once you have your own profile, you can download an app to use Mango on a mobile device (Android/iOS), you can log in directly from Mango's site in the future, or you can continue logging in from here.